All Water Leads To The Ocean
by Lily Zen
Summary: Set quite a few years after the movie ends. Cassie, tired of watching Nick love a woman she doesn't even like, leaves and begins a life on her own, only it's not as easy as it once was being alone. Cassie/Nick. Some Nick/Kira.


All Water Leads To The Ocean

Rating: M

Author: Lily Zen

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Notes: I love the movie Push, and honestly I'm kind of shocked that they haven't produced a sequel yet. Anyway, this is an eventual Cassie/Nick one-shot. It's not happy, but it's not sad either. It is rated a definite M though. Consider yourselves warned.

Disclaimer: I do not own Push, or any characters or concepts from the movie.

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Cassie loved Nick.

That was why she'd had to leave.

After they'd met up with Kira on Coney Island, it was clear to see that there was going to be an ever-present friction between Kira and Cassie. Then there was poor Nick, stuck in between the girl he loved and the girl he loved platonically. He trusted Cassie's second sight, but outside of Seeing something her opinions tended to fall on the back-burner. After all, she was just a kid in comparison to him and Kira.

Cassie tried not to take it personal.

Still, she and Kira fought a lot. It was apparent, to the girls at least, that they only tolerated each other's presence because they both loved Nick. Finally, though, Cassie's patience snapped. She was tired of battling it out for a man who didn't even realize there was a war being fought. She was tired of waiting for Kira to leave, to surrender, and she was damn tired of watching (and Watching) him love another woman. So she left.

She didn't make a big production out of it or anything. One night while Nick and Kira were out on one of their rare date nights, Cassie simply packed up her meager belongings and turned in her motel key at the desk. When the happy couple returned to the empty motel room later that night they read a simple note scrawled on a piece of paper from Cassie's sketchbook. 'Going solo for awhile,' it read, 'Don't worry. I'll be fine.'

That was three years ago. Cassie was nineteen now, almost twenty, and had developed into a beautiful young woman. She had stopped coloring her hair awhile ago because it was easier to blend in as a blonde than a girl with multicolored hair. Also, the blonde was a people-pleaser.

She was doing well on her own. Cassie was a survivor and she had an edge on Division, being a Watcher and all. Of course she'd almost gotten caught once. It had been a really close call. About two years ago, Cassie's mother died. She Saw it happen and was too shaken to See that Division had also sent agents after Cassie in Chicago. They cornered her on the Red Line and hustled her off on a stop in the middle of nowhere. Cassie knew she'd only get one opportunity to escape. Apparently, they weren't expecting a Watcher to use force on them.

Cassie tripped in an alley and grabbed a long length of metal pipe that had fallen off of a fire escape. She came up from the ground swinging. The first agent went down and stayed down with the first blow; the second took a little longer, but eventually he fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood. Cassie ran with the pipe still in her hands, pausing only to drop it in the lake, and got out of town before Division could get other agents to pick up her trail.

Aside from that, though, she had remained remarkably safe.

Sometimes she Watched to see how Nick was faring. He was with Kira, so they had considerably more close calls than she did. Still, they always managed to make it out okay. That was enough for Cassie. If she ever thought Nick was in any serious danger, she would try to help him. Of course, it wouldn't be in any real danger at all if Kira would just leave him. But that was wishful thinking and she knew it. Kira was far too selfish to ever leave him. Like Cassie, who was too selfish to stay.

* * *

Her place in L.A. was a dive. Most of L.A. itself was a dive, so that evened things out, she thought. It was a small basement studio that didn't look too horrible on the surface. Sure, the tile in the galley kitchen was dingy, the appliances were outdated, the carpet was worn, but it was a hell of a lot nicer than some places she'd stayed.

The real problems were in what you couldn't see. The place had a roach problem which she was forever trying to solve and mice living in the walls. At night, Cassie could hear them skittering around, living out their little mouse lives. Truth be told, she didn't mind the mice. They never came in the apartment because she didn't have enough food in the cupboards to interest them. It was the roaches she detested and she was pretty sure that the building itself had termites. Oh well.

Cassie had lived there for seven months without any sign that Division was coming. She found that she liked being able to stay in one place. Strangely, she even had what could be considered friends. Sure, they weren't real friends. Not like Nick was, the kind you could fight with furiously and still hug ten minutes later. They were more like allies on the mean streets of L.A.

Her boots kept steady time as Cassie walked down the street to the corner store. She bought a pack of cigarettes with some crumpled bills and a little smile for Parveen, the clerk, who was always friendly, sometimes a bit too much. Then Cassie left that place and walked further into the neighborhood.

It sucked when she was lonely. That was the worst part about leaving Nick—she was lonely a lot more now that she knew what relief companionship offered from the reality of her existence. She was wearing a short gauzy skirt that threatened to rise up at the slightest sign of a stiff breeze. She bought it because it reminded her of the time she and Nick had gone to an art museum for her birthday. It was cool blue and violet with hints of green and looked like one of the watercolor paintings they'd seen together. The skirt clashed a little with her short leather jacket, but Cassie didn't care.

The blonde nodded at a woman who always introduced herself as Neferti. The dark skinned older woman grinned at her and waved her over, but Cassie begged off the invite with a hand gesture. She didn't have time, she was looking for someone.

Most of the time Cassie got by using her gift to find money or items she needed, but sometimes when she was lonely… well, it was somewhat of a compulsion. Cassie would be lonely, so lonely, and she would start thinking about Nick. Then she would get that warm, tingly feeling low in her abdomen. Her mind would taunt her with images of what would never be, and then Cassie would get up and go find someone to make her feel better.

She turned away the first three Johns who tried to pick her up, and got in the car with the fourth. Cassie Saw he had a wife that he loved and two kids. One was in the fourth grade, the other was in kindergarten. She Saw that he would be good to her, and that was important. Mostly, she Saw that he was nothing like Nick.

Okay, so maybe as she undressed, did her little striptease for the guy, she pictured Nick. So what? Her leather jacket hit the floor with a dull thud and her hips swayed to an invisible beat. Cassie's hands curved around her tight little breasts over her black tank top. The man's eyes followed her movements, but it was Nick that she pictured.

Still, it assuaged the ache for human contact, and he paid promptly and in full. Hell, he even drove her back to the place where he'd picked her up and let her out of the car with a heartfelt 'have a good night.' It was more than she could have hoped for. Cassie walked back to her apartment with a little skip in her step.

* * *

Cassie didn't See Nick for a whole three weeks after that. She was proud of herself for refusing to give in to temptation, since every time she did it just broke her heart a little more. Of course, the end to that three week streak was bittersweet.

Victory flooded her heart when she Watched Kira leave Nick, and also sadness and guilt. She hated the sad look on his face and couldn't help but to pick up the phone. "Hello, Nick."

"Cassie?" His voice was incredulous.

"Yeah," she replied, "I'm sorry Kira's gone."

"It was time," Nick surprised her by saying, "We were over for awhile now."

Cassie was silent, mostly because she didn't know what to say. She picked at the thin blanket on her mattress contemplatively.

"Cass?"

"Yeah?"

"Where are you?"

"L.A."

He showed up a week later.

It was weird having him there in her little apartment. It had been so long since they'd seen each other. Nick was constantly looking at her as though he was surprised she was even there. Cassie was constantly looking at him whenever he didn't know she was looking, drinking in his features and mannerisms and his tight ass in those fucking threadbare jeans. It was torture.

It was heaven.

She didn't know what it was.

He kept saying, "It was just weird being alone, y'know? God, just weird, and I missed having you around, kiddo. Really."

It was driving her bonkers.

Then one night they were both crashed out on her mattress. The radio was playing softly in the background, the mice were skittering, but that wasn't what woke her up at all. It was Nick.

In his sleep, he'd snuggled up against Cassie, his long frame spooning her shorter one with one arm flung over her waist. His hand grasped her breast over her tank top, weakly massaging it as he dropped into an even deeper sleep. In that moment everything changed and Cassie was flung into a vision so intense that the world ceased to be real anymore.

_His mouth was firm and his jaw worked under her hands. She was greedy, her mouth plundering his with years of pent-up desire, making small, needy noises when she could get the breath to do so. Nick's fingers pulled aside her underwear and plunged inside of her. The feeling was so intense; she nearly came from that alone. Her nails bit into his back and then when she knew it was bordering on hurt, she ripped his t-shirt over his head and licked a long, wet line down his throat and sternum. Cassie stopped when she felt him hit that spot inside of her that made all normal brain function cease. Her head rested on his shoulder as he figured out immediately what he'd done and went about repeating it for maximum effect, her breath coming out in quick pants and moans. _

"_Nick, oh god," her voice was breathy and it was hard for her to find the right words, "Nick, I—" Cassie couldn't finish because all of the sudden she was coming. It happened so fast, one minute she was almost there, and the next she was flying over that edge, crying out and biting down on Nick's shoulder, any place to channel that overabundance of feeling. Her inner muscles tightened and she heard Nick groan in sympathy. _

_When she came back down, she was laying on her back with Nick between her legs, staring at her like a starving man, his jaw set, eyes intense. She knew he needed to hear her say it was okay, that this was what she wanted, before he would take it any further. Cassie grinned and laughed, crooking her finger at him. When he was hovering over her on his arms, she stated, "Nick, I want you to fuck me now, please. I think I'll die if you leave me hanging. I want you so bad." She nipped his earlobe, which made him shiver and kiss her again. Then he reared up, using one hand to line himself up with her entrance and the other to stroke her inner thigh and coax one of her legs around his waist. _

_When he slid into her, groaning her name in a strangled voice, it was like seeing god and knowing you were forgiven of all the bad things you'd ever done in your life. Cassie arched her back and came again just from the sense of completion that filled her soul._

Cassie came back to reality with a gasp, though she had to check and make sure that she really had pajamas on. When she shifted her legs slightly in her shorts, she had enough of her mind left to wonder if it hadn't really happened. Sure enough she was wet, throbbing, and tingling with the after-effects of an orgasm. God, she hoped she hadn't screamed like in the vision. It was just so intense!

But no, she must not have because Nick was still asleep with his body curled around hers. That was okay though, because she knew that this time, things had changed. Things were going to go her way some day. In the dark, she smiled satisfactorily and snuggled down to go back to sleep.

Unbeknownst to her, Nick smiled over the top of her head and pressed a kiss into her blonde, wavy hair. It had scared the piss out of him when he'd woken up hearing her voice hoarsely cry his name. At first, he'd frantically asked what was wrong, only to realize that Cassie was locked in one of her visions. Sometimes they happened like that. It was rare, but they did. Then she began to tremble and sigh like…like a woman in the grip of passion. And…okay, Nick wasn't the most observant guy in the world, but even he could put the puzzle pieces together.

It was a relief to discover that he wasn't alone in his attraction, and laying there on Cassie's mattress in her tiny apartment, he began to make a plan for the seduction of Cassie Holmes. She wasn't going to know what hit her.

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-FIN-


End file.
